In recent years, Dave Pine spent over a million dollars, out of his own pocket, to get himself elected. In the recent special election, the Chair of the Democratic Central Committe created a hit piece comparing Dave Pine to Meg Whitman, but unlike Meg, Dave Pine managed to outspend his opponents to victory. In the recent primary, Dave Pine paid big bucks to get his name and face on the official slate mailer of the County Democratic Party, although he never received the endorsement of that organization. Yes, this is a good time for a morals check.

Honesty,

What am I missing here. Dave Pine invested his own money what is wrong with that?
He supports District elections, He supports parks over jail.

Empower the voters VOTE YES on Measure B.

Honesty

You confirm part of my point Carole Groom and Rose Jacobs Gibson saved a lot of money by being appointed. Dave Pine invested over $550,000 and Don Horsley invested over $450,000 with the promise not to accept any of the salary paid to Supervisor, you failed to mention Don Horsley for some reason.

The issue, imho, is about access. (I've asked a lot of questions both last November and this June.)

For local races (city council, school board) a candidate speaks in front of local groups, meets people at the farmers market, walks the neighborhoods, attends forum style meetings and presents him/herself - full time for three months. For county supervisor, there are ten times the voters to meet and, outside of your town, none of them have ever heard of you - unless you're the incumbent. So campaigning is about (1) getting your face and name out there and (2) getting endorsements of current leaders, and/or the democratic party. These cost big money, or quid pro quo.

Unfortunately, too many voters pick a familiar name, not a known quantity - thats just campaign reality - so a county wide election is about mailers and endorsements (connections, quid pro quo). This is not "democracy", its just money and horse trading.
The solution is to go to district elections - a smaller venue where voters might actually MEET the candidate, or know someone who has met or has been to a forum (the latter are very revealing). The argument that candidates "must represent the whole county" is well meant but kind of silly given that county wide campaigns are really professional mail and robo-call efforts.

As for Groom and Gibson, they are married to the status quo. One look at the baffling county web site, the recurring dip into reserves or the threat to close parks, tells us that.